Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dsl and resolved

Why can I use PING but not HTTP on a yet-to-be-activated DSL account?

j0hnpaul — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:15:09 -0800

Why can I PING with my new DSL modem on an inactive account, but nothing else? Hi! My new modem arrived for Verizon DSL service, but my "service ready date" hasn't arrived yet, giving me some time to muse and experiment.

I noticed that when I set up the modem and connected my Mac via an Ethernet cable, my Network Diagnostics show that the computer is connected to the internet and the connection is working properly. I noticed I can also PING google.com, verizon.com, or any other website from the Terminal with zero packet loss.

On the other hand, everything useful about the internet is closed. I can't access anything in a web browser, and attempting to run the software Verizon sent me to "activate my account" or "troubleshoot my connection" fails. I surmise this is related to trying this before the "service ready date".

But the fact that PING works from the command line, and I'm able to send and receive data across the internet, makes me wonder how real the "service ready date" is. If it's possible to communicate with sites via PING, why not through HTTP? What's really going on?

SF Bay Area DSL recommendation?

twsf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:05:43 -0800

I love the DSL service from Sonic.net but they keep raising their rates. I do know better than to go with a "bargain" rate from AT&T. Anyone have another suggestion for quality, affordable home DSL service in the San Francisco Bay Area?

Everybody provides every service now.

Acari — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:22:13 -0800

Canadian phone/cable/internetfilter: what combo of services are cheapest? The scenario:
Two people moving into a new place in Edmonton, mostly calling each other [or not, neither have cell phones right now] and local calls almost exclusively. Cable TV is not a requirement, although even the phone company provides that service now.

Is it best to go with a dsl/landline package from Telus?
A cable internet/digital phone package from Shaw?
Internet from [somebody] and VOIP [with Vonage? somebody better?]

Having two cellphones on a family plan and [magical internet from whoever] sounds like it provide the most convenience for us, but there are also a zillion cell phone providers to sift through to figure out what the best deal would be there.

Our total phone usage is currently quite low [maybe 20 minutes/month each?] but that might creep up with cell phone ownership. The kind of calls we make are mostly of the this-is-my-current-location-i-will-see-you-at-X-o'clock type, and would be served equally well by text messages, but voice calls are necessary for contacting older relatives.

What I'm looking for is someone who has been down this road and can point to the glaringly obvious solution that I haven't even considered yet.

My DSL woes, in verse. Hopefully I won't have to progress to haiku.

EmpressCallipygos — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:17:03 -0800

An appeal to you all so I don't run up the wall/Or beat on my desk with my forehead./For when my DSL is good, the connection's very good -- But when I use the phone, it is horrid. ....In other words.

I have a DSL account with AT&T which I can confirm is properly set up (a friend who was the head of IT for Bloomberg.com for ten years saw to that), and I also have my phone -- an old-ish cordless phone -- plugged into it, and yes, I am using a filter for that. No other electronic device is plugged into this DSL box.

Now. Whenever I use the phone, the DSL box drops its connection to the Internet, and the only way to get the internet connection BACK is to do a hard reset of the DSL box by unplugging and replugging the power cord into the DSL box. Sometimes, even so, it takes up to a half hour. Everything else is fine -- the DSL, LAN, and other lights are on, just the Internet craps out.

Now, I thought that that was the whole point of DSL, that you could use phone and internet simultaneously. We've tried calling AT&T, but all the tech support said is that "sometimes cordless phones interrupt the service". She did not say why, nor have any idea how to rectify that.

...Suggestions? Thoughts? I do have a newer phone I just haven't broken out of the box yet, might that help? (The phone I have now is about 4 years old.)

How to investigate an ISP

vilcxjo_BLANKA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:50:37 -0800

How do I get information on the reliability and competence of an ISP? I have not changed ISP in a decade, but I think it's time. I currently have Speakeasy DSL. Speakeasy's customer service and reliablity is great. But it's DSL, so it's slow and expensive, and I'd like to switch.

My town restricts me to three vendors: Comcast, RCN and someone called Galaxy Internet Services. (This is Brookline, MA.) I'm pretty sure Comcast and RCN are incompetent, but I'm not sure about Galaxy. I have searched for reviews of them, but without very much success.

I don't need any software from them, or anything else except a digital dialtone. I need to run a mail server, a web server, an ldap server and my own DNS, though I could remove the DNS. I'm paying about $100/month for DSL and phone now, and would like that to decrease. I could do away with the phone service if doing away with it is cheap. I could pay a per-minute phone charge if that is cheaper.

Has anyone had experience with them? I'm particularly interested in fiber optic service, and not in wireless or in DSL service.

Thanks.

Why can't I open webpages?

k8t — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:49:00 -0800

ADSL working but HTTP not working. I just got an ADSL connection (in Armenia, provider is Beeline, only documentation is here and is in Armenian. 256k though. Woo!)

I can use all sorts of applications pretty well (iTunes downloading podcasts, Flickr uploader, Outlook for mail, gChat, etc.), but I can't do anything HTTP. I open Firefox and can sometimes get a mobile page to load and I can search Google or Yahoo and see the results, but I can't open "normal" webpages at all. I tried IE and Opera but the same problem occurs.

I tried getting into the configuration page for the DSL modem, but doesn't look like it'll work well.

Also, suggesting updating firmware for DSL modem or something isn't possible. I am on really bad dialup otherwise.

Why would this be? (And yes, I've called tech support. They are less than impressive. They only introduced this service this month and aren't exactly supporting it.)

I am running Vista. I have tried to turn off all firewall-related stuff that I can possibly think of.

Any other ideas?

Help me fix my flaky wireless internet connection

schoolgirl report — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:07:13 -0800

What's up with my flaky wireless internet connection? The hardware: Toshiba Satellite M55, Win XP, Belkin wireless router with security enabled, your average Verizon business DSL service. The Intel PROSet Wireless application, which is what I use to configure and connect to wireless networks, typically shows I'm connected to the network at 24Mbps, sometimes more.

The situation: My laptop is maybe fifteen feet from the router, which is on the other side of a wall in a very old building. Until recently I had the router in my office, and everything played together fairly well. Now we've moved stuff around, and things have gone downhill.

If I click on, say, a YouTube video (or any old website, but YouTube is a better example), everything loads very slow, if at all. If I then open the Intel PROSet Wireless app, which causes it to refresh its list of available wireless networks, everything starts to load properly, i.e., the progress bar on the video starts to move right along. This improved loading speed lasts for a bit, until it doesn't, and I have to launch PROSet again to get things moving. Or at least I think that's having an effect. It's entirely possible it's coincidence, as it doesn't always work, but it sure seems like it's helping.

If I take my laptop home, I get pretty solid performance even if I'm two floors above my wireless router (security not enabled -- I live in the boonies).

Any thoughts, or tests to help me narrow it down?

Best option for internet provider in San Francisco?

jcruelty — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 10:51:56 -0800

What's the best option for high-speed internet access in San Francisco? (Moving from Castro to Potrero Hill, would like to ditch Comcast if there's a good alternative.) Apologies if this has been covered somewhere-- I googled around but there's too many hits to make sense of. Basically I want to know what people recommend for fast reliable internet service in San Francisco. We've been using Comcast (cable modem) but I don't like the company and don't need cable TV, just internet. I'm not entirely averse to staying with Comcast but I'd like to know the alternatives. Is DSL comparably fast?

I'm running a wireless network through a Belkin Pre-N router, don't know if that matters.